Meet Jessi Karr

“Hi. My name is Jessi Karr. I’m the father of two dogs, Dalton and Frope, 8 and 3, respectively. I was born in Ann Arbor.

I finished school in 2016. Like many students, I had quite a bit of student loan debt and nothing in my bank account. Since then, I’ve been working hard in several health care jobs. I worked as a wellness coordinator at Glacier Hills, an assisted living aide at Synergy Health, and a COVID-19 health screener at Granger Construction. During that time I’ve been saving up and opened my own retirement account. I now work at Priority Health as an insurance agent and I’m happy to say that I’m finally caught up with my loans and ready to be a homeowner.

One day while talking with my mom, she mentioned that one of the things she wishes she had done was participate in Habitat for Humanity’s Home Ownership Program. I would later look into it out of curiosity and asked myself why I wasn’t doing it. It’s such a great program that teaches you real-world skills while offering affordable housing.

My current living situation is not ideal. Without a proper backyard, my dogs don’t have much space to run. I use my room as a living room, kitchen, and bedroom. Now that I work from home, my room is my office as well; I’m looking forward to my own stable environment with more space.

My goals with a new home include building equity, setting up a real office, and tackling more ambitious creative projects. I anticipate being able to customize my own home and thrive in a fully functional environment.

What Habitat for Humanity and its volunteers do is incredible, changing the course of people’s lives for the better. I can’t think of any other volunteer opportunity that has such a positive and direct impact on people. It must be immediately gratifying knowing that you have built something so foundational to a person’s success.”

Jessi’s home is sponsored by Masco Corp., and is part of our Student Build partnership with the South and West Washtenaw Consortium (SWWC). Students from six participating districts of Chelsea, Dexter, Manchester, Milan, Lincoln and Saline will gain hands-on, in-person class instruction at the Habitat house as part of their academic school year.

For many years, Masco has partnered with our affiliate to donate countless products and services. Masco employees have volunteered on our worksites and the corporation has donated more than $375,000 in funding toward our renovation projects. It is partners like Masco who help our program succeed year after year!